Ciara is currently having her latest book offering beta tested. If you would like to participate check out her website and send through your contact details.

We ask all these questions and many stupid ones (well Damien anyway)!

Bring Out Your Dead:

BALLINTYNE Ciara (1981 – 2081) – Arrived, lived and departed loudly. Born argumentative, then became a lawyer, so nothing changed as she aged. Ciara never hesitated to point out when someone was wrong, and she was always right. She never really did decide whether to use her powers for good or for evil.
Ciara devoted her life to the literary arts in the genre of high fantasy. She is survived by her daughters, Aurora and Anya, and a host of imaginary and largely insane and homicidal characters, some of whom may have played a part in her death. Her last book will be released posthumously. As always, she had the last word.

Word of the week:

HANDFASTING
At one time, betrothal — the solemn exchange of vows of intention to marry — was as important a step as marriage itself. Some of the ceremony once common in betrothal — such as exchanging rings or a formal kiss — later became part of the marriage service as that progressively became more important.

We don’t know a lot about the rules in Anglo-Saxon England before the Norman Conquest, but the betrothal ceremony seems to have been marked by the happy couple joining hands. This was the handfast — the holding fast of hands.

It seems that in Northern England and Scotland, handfasting marked a first stage of marriage, a temporary contract that lasted a year and a day. If at the end of that time no child had been born and the couple didn’t want to continue, the betrothal lapsed.

The ceremony’s name has become known again in recent decades because it has been adopted by modern Pagans such as Wiccans. The culmination of the modern ceremony often takes the form of a couple jumping together over a broom, another borrowing from ancient custom. For today’s Pagans, however, the ceremony is marriage, not betrothal. Some have a complementary divorce rite called handparting.

Prompt

My birthday is a high holiday.
My husband, fortunately, has it circled on his calendar with red markers and little sticky stars. Oh, that may have been me.
What do you do on your birthday? What do you wish you could do on your birthday?
What kind of attitude does your character have about his or her birthday? Is it all about them? Are they disappointed when their loved ones don’t come through with surprise parties? Is there a surprise party?
What happens at the surprise party?
You can take birthdays to a great degree.
Me? I spoke at a conference but managed to eat cake all day.

Shout out:

Beth Baranay, Natalie Goldberg and Eric Maisel who started me on this path, even though he doesn’t know it.

Shadows of the Realm: Book 1 of the Circle of Talia
-Dionne Lister.

Bronwyn and Blayke are two strangers being drawn into the same war. Their world is facing invasion from the Third Realm. While they move unknowingly toward each other, they are watched, hunted, and sabotaged. When the Dragon God interferes, it seems their world, Talia, will succumb to the threat. Can they learn enough of the tricks of the Realms before it’s too late, or will everything they love be destroyed?

The young Realmists’ journey pushes them away from all they’ve known, to walk in the shadows toward Vellonia, city of the dragons, where an even darker shadow awaits.

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[…] Episode 30 – Newbie Writers Podcast!(newbiewriters.com) function resizeCrossDomainIframe(id, other_domain) { var iframe = document.getElementById(id); window.addEventListener('message', function(event) { if (event.origin !== other_domain) return; // only accept messages from the specified domain if (isNaN(event.data)) return; // only accept something which can be parsed as a number var height = parseInt(event.data) + 32; // add some extra height to avoid scrollbar iframe.height = height + "px"; }, false); } RachelintheOCRachel Thompson aka RachelintheOC is a published author and social media consultant. Her two books, A Walk In The Snark and The Mancode: Exposed are both #1 Kindle bestsellers! When not writing, she helps authors and other professionals with branding and social media for her company, BadRedhead Media. She hates walks in the rain, running out of coffee, and coconut. Buy Now : A Walk in the Snark * Mancode: ExposedMore Posts – Website Follow Me:Share this:ShareShareRedditEmailDigg […]